Share ratio

When people refer to share ratio, they normally mean one of four different things. Hence, there can be confusion when comparing two figures together. This page tries to clarify the difference between them.

In general, Share ratio is a measure of your sharing activity. The ratio is calculated by dividing the amount of uploaded data by the amount of downloaded data. If the ratio is over 1.0, you have uploaded more than downloaded. If it is below 1.0, you have downloaded more than uploaded.

You should aim for a Share Ratio greater than 1 because otherwise, trackers could ban you because you are leeching, and there will be fewer good torrents out there.

Contents

The share ratio indicator at the bottom of the Azureus classic interface is calculated by how much that instance of Azureus has ever sent and received. It is red if your Total Share Ratio is < 0.5, yellow if it's < 0.9 and green if > 0.9. If you start off with a new install of Azureus, it will start off from scratch. It is used solely as an indicator of how well you have shared your data with other users since you started using Azureus. This does not always relate to the share ratio you will have for a tracker site (especially if you use more than one tracker).

The Share Ratio column in the Library (My Torrents) view indicates how much data you have sent and received for each individual torrent. In the case that you are adding a new torrent to Azureus which you already have the data for, Azureus may choose a best-guess figure to determine how much you may have downloaded and uploaded. In most cases though, the share ratio will start from 0 and will be accurate if that instance of Azureus has always managed the torrent.

This value does not always match the ratio given on a tracker site (read below to see why).

Usually, when a tracker site lists how much you have uploaded and downloaded for a torrent - it usually how much you have shared for that session. If you stop the torrent in Azureus and then start it again, those values will normally start from zero again. The total amount of data you have shared is calculated as part of your global tracker share ratio.

So per-torrent values are usually per-session values, where a session is just how much you have transferred since you last started the torrent (restarting Azureus would normally reset these values). But remember - how much you have uploaded and downloaded in previous sessions should be included in your global tracker share ratio.